Notebook of Ghosts

If one of your new year’s resolutions is to see a ghost, maybe visit one of these haunted hotels below. 👻

The Lady in Red 

On New Year’s Eve 1920, the Drake Hotel of Chicago was throwing an opening gala with 2,000 in attendance. Notable guests included John Drake and hotel architect Benjamin Howard Marshall. A woman in a red dress was also in attendance. She discovered her fiancé dancing with another woman, so she took the elevator to the 10th floor (the roof) and jumped to her death. Visitors to the hotel report seeing the Woman in Red wandering around the 10th floor, Gold Coast Room, and the Palm Court. 

Note: Benjamin Howard Marshall also designed the Iroquois Theatre, known for its deadly fire in 1903. 

Source: Chicago Mag 

The Midnight Coach 

The Molesworth Arms Hotel is located in Cornwall, England and is a 16th century coaching inn. Every 31st of December, a phantom coach—complete with horses and a headless horseman—appears at midnight in the courtyard and then exits the hotel grounds. People have seen and/or heard the phantom coach. 

Source:  A Ghostly Almanac Devon & Cornwall by Nicola Sly 

The Elevator Shaft 

La Concha Hotel in Key West, Florida has a number of ghosts. According to their website, “Guests swap stories of bursts of cold air, vanishing chardonnay and quiet sounds of whimpering from unknown spirits.” 

A waiter was cleaning after a New Year’s Eve party in the 1980s and unknowingly backed into an open elevator shaft, falling many floors down to his death. His ghost has been seen wheeling a cart into an elevator, going through the doors, and disappearing. Guests report hearing his screams and calls for help as well. 

Source: La Concha Hotel website (page no longer active)